


Counterparts and Possibilities

by Saavikam77



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Mistaken Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 16:50:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6762199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saavikam77/pseuds/Saavikam77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Mayor Leonard Snart is kidnapped, he's rescued by Ray Palmer ... but not *his* Ray Palmer.  When he and his Ray discover their Earth-1 counterparts aren't together, they have to make things right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counterparts and Possibilities

**Author's Note:**

> For Coldatom Week Day 3: Earth-2 AU. This took forever. :p

Unable to relieve the tension in his arms with his hands cuffed to the chair behind him, Mayor Leonard Snart waited impatiently for someone to get off their ass and come rescue him. As if things weren't bad enough, with him being kidnapped by a group of Zoom-worshiping speed freaks to try to win Zoom's favor, his hope to get out of here was slowly dwindling with every passing second. It'd been too long already.

Where was the Flash? And Captain West of CCPD? Or the Fire Chief? Hell, he'd settle for one of those damn self-named Rogues at this point. They at least had some sense about them since they broke from Zoom's crew, and that one girl—what was her name? Killer Frost?—was even semi-respectable in his eyes.

Realizing he was on the verge of losing his cool with the situation, Len took a few deep breaths, stilling himself. Patience hadn't always been his strong suit, especially before he'd sought public office, so now was definitely the time to get in some extra practice. He could still be here for a while, after all, and it wouldn't be good for his image if he started shooting icy barbs at whoever came to—

A far-off sound reached his ears then, a low rumble, then shouting, and a crash of what sounded like a wall being blown apart. Thank god, he was gonna get out of here.

“I'm back here!” he yelled, hoping someone heard him.

He listened to the cacophony further away in the building, the sounds getting closer, men crying out, some sort of blasts shaking the building, and finally he heard the whine of what sounded like a pulse gun charging up. Another blast, and the metal door to the room he was being kept in was flying open, torn off of its hinges and locks. Ducking automatically, he squeezed his eyes shut, and coughed with the sudden smoke that began pouring into the room.

“It's about time! Get me out of here!” he demanded, realizing that heat was creeping in along with the smoke. The damn building was on fire.

Gloved hands tore open the cuffs on his wrists, and at last, that tension was gone. As he rubbed his wrists gingerly, he stood and looked up at his rescuer, blinking hard against the smoke. It wasn't Mick … he didn't recognize the man, the full-face visor of his metal suit obscuring his features. “Hold on tight!” the man told him, wrapping his arms around him and lifting him into the air and quickly out through the smoke and fire.

Set on the pavement outside the burning building, Len choked and coughed, his lungs and eyes stinging. He heard the distant wails of fire engines and police cars, and relief flooded him. He was out. He was freed.

But—

Len lifted his wire-framed glasses to swipe at his eyes and clear his vision, then blinked up at the man, setting his glasses back in place. Since when did Central City have vigilantes in robot suits flying around? “Who the hell are you?” he asked, his tone harsher than he meant it to be.

The man lifted his visor, and Len's chest bloomed with surprise.

“I'm Ray Palmer. I'm here to rescue you,” the man said.

Len's mind spun as he stared up at the tech genius that ran PalmerTech, the man that was responsible for the SmartPalm, the man that Len had been having a not-so-secret love affair with for three years. He'd never been so glad to see someone in his life. Reaching up, he pulled Ray in for a heated kiss, tasting the sweetness he loved so much, nipping at his lip and licking into his mouth. He felt Ray tense against him, and it hit him that something was wrong. Somehow, this whole scenario was wrong.

Slowly, he let go and huffed out a heavy breath. “What are you doing here, Ray? You could've been killed. And what the hell is _this?”_ he said, grabbing the shoulder of the metal suit. “You trying to play hero? With Zoom still running around? And … and did you just quote _Star Wars_ at me?”

“Uh … maybe?” Ray said, blushing and seeming unsure of himself, his eyebrows lifted—and since when did Ray have anything to act shy over?—but then he tilted his head as if he was listening to someone through an earpiece. The sound of gunfire erupted from inside the building, and he grabbed Len's hand, ushering him further away. “We gotta go, I'll explain everything when we get somewhere safe.”

Not about to argue, Len followed, allowing himself to be held tightly as Ray took them into the air, a long list of questions suddenly plaguing him.

~*~*~

'Somewhere safe' turned out to be the roof of Len's apartment building. When he was finally set down again, Len backed off, studying Ray.

“All right, spill it,” he said. “Since when do you parade around in a blue and red armored suit that can fly? Don't tell me this is the secret project you've been working on.”

Ray took off his helmet and ran a gloved hand through his hair, still looking sheepish. “Okay, so—” he started hesitantly. “I'm not the Ray Palmer you know. I'm from another Earth. A parallel Earth. We've been trying to keep an immortal madman from destroying the future, and there was sort of a rift between our worlds, and our ship couldn't stop before it barreled through it. While we were trying to figure out how to reverse the rift, you were kidnapped, and I couldn't just—”

“Okay, stop,” Len cut him off with a raised hand as he finally started to catch up. This wasn't his Ray. Of course it wasn't. God, it made so much sense it actually made Len's chest ache, even as some of the tension started to leave him. It explained everything about the way Ray— _not_ his Ray—was acting. Len had heard of the rifts, thankfully, and knew they were what Zoom had been using to do so much damage to his city. He also knew that certain members of the city's populous had disappeared through them, including a few metahumans he was glad to be rid of. Naturally, there'd have to be some trading off here and there.

After a long moment of regard, he decided to cut this Ray a little slack since the poor guy looked like he was worried he'd be thrown in prison or something. “I get it,” he said quietly. “Thank you.”

The Ray in the metal suit let out a long breath, his shoulders relaxing. “You're welcome,” he replied with a nod. “My team should have the situation handled back there soon, and they'll work with Captain West to get everything squared away.”

“Good,” Len sighed, glad that his people had a little extra help. He propped his hands on his hips. “Now, if you're not my Ray, then where is he? I need to find him and make sure he's safe.”

“As far as we knew you were the only one that was taken, so he should be wherever he's supposed to be. I can have someone on my team find him if you want.” He paused for a moment. “Um … how do you know my doppelganger, anyway?”

There was that sheepish look again.

Len scowled briefly. Of course he didn't know about them. If this Ray even had a Leonard Snart, they weren't together. “I think you can guess,” he murmured, crossing his arms across his chest.

Ray blushed, and he rubbed the back of his neck with a gloved hand. “Um, yeah. I kinda got that. You two are close.”

Dammit, he hated seeing Ray looking so lost and confused, even if he wasn't Len's Ray. “That's one way to put it,” he acknowledged with a nod. “I take it you're not so close with your own version of me.”

A frown, and Ray shook his head. “Not so much. We work together, but I'm pretty sure he hates me. A lot.”

Len remembered the way he and his partner had gotten together. His Ray might've said the same thing about him back then. “Pretty sure he doesn't. Give him a chance; he'll come around.”

Ray blushed even harder, his breath seeming to quicken just a bit as his gaze turned inward. Len started to feel worried that he might just pass out at this rate.

But that was neither here nor there right now. He had things to do, and finding his Ray was at the top of the list.

Dropping his arms, he reached into his pants pocket to fish out his SmartPalm, before he remembered that his kidnappers had taken it. “Damn,” he said. “How the hell am I supposed to call Ray if I don't have my SP? I can't do _anything_ without it.”

“I'm sorry, your what now?” Ray asked, one eyebrow lifted.

Heaving another sigh, Len resigned himself to explaining Ray's own tech to him. “My third-generation SP, short for SmartPalm. It's the most advanced personal mobile device on the planet. And _you_ developed it.”

Ray's other eyebrow joined the first, and his mouth dropped open. “Oh … like an iPhone? Or a smartphone?”

Another scowl. “That sounds ridiculous. Why limit its name to just one function?” It was so strange, how this was starting to feel like their usual banter, with Ray's— _his_ Ray's—quirky suggestions.

This Ray smiled crookedly. “I'm not responsible for the iPhone.”

Shaking his head, Len huffed out an annoyed breath. “I need to contact Captain West to let her know I'm all right and figure out what the hell happened back there. And I have to find Ray,” he repeated, before heading for the door to the stairwell.

This Ray was hot on his heels. “My team can find him,” he suggested again. Then, tapping his earpiece, he spoke into it, “Hey guys, we need to find my doppelganger and bring him to my location.” He paused a moment. “Send Cold.”

As he headed down the stairwell toward his floor, Len couldn't help a sinking feeling about what Ray had just requested of his team. If he'd done what Len thought he did … his Len was in for one hell of a surprise.

~*~*~

Fuming, Len stalked out onto the roof of the PalmerTech building with a flustered Ray Palmer following close behind. Of all the … of course the Boy Scout would send _him_ to pick up his double. The bastard must've known full well what he was doing, and was probably laughing his ass off.

Damn him.

“Look, I said I'm sorry,” this Ray apologized again as he caught up with him, his blue t-shirt and jeans still rumpled. “If I'd known you weren't my Lenny, I would've stopped sooner. But I get it now, you're not him, and you can't seem to stand me, and … I don't know what else to say.”

Len turned to glare at him as they reached the jump ship. “Stop apologizing. Just … stop.”

This Ray blushed a little, adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses—dammit, why did Ray look so adorable in glasses?—and gave him a small, apologetic smile in return.

“Get in,” Len ordered him, opening the hatch and waving him inside.

Once they were both strapped in, Len maneuvered the small ship up into the air, and directed it toward the upscale apartment building that Ray— _his_ Ray—had given them the coordinates to.

“Wow,” this Ray said from behind him, trying to peer over Len's shoulders at the controls. “This is some system. I bet I can get my SmartPalm to synch up with it, and get some of the specs.”

“Don't,” Len warned him with a growl, eying the small device that Palmer had taken out, some kind of holographic interface. “We're not gonna go messing up _your_ timeline, too.”

Ray seemed to shrink back at that, deflated. “Oh, right. Future tech. Sorry.”

Len sighed. He'd thought the Ray he knew was insufferable, but this guy took the cake. He couldn't imagine a duplicate of himself that would want to have anything to do with him. Hell, he couldn't imagine _any_ version of himself that would want to have a relationship with any version of Ray. They were night and day, realism and fantasy, a criminal and a Boy Scout. It was laughable.

The only solace he had was that this Ray had immediately understood what was going on when Len explained it, how they'd come from another Earth, how they just needed to get home before any more damage could be done. Palmer was a genius in more than one world, and maybe that could help them get back to their own.

If only he wasn't such a damn excited puppy about the whole thing. It made Len want to throw up. Or throw things at him. Or basically anything to get him to shut up.

“You know—” this Ray started tentatively, just as they were landing on the roof of the upscale apartment building.

“No,” Len cut him off. “Whatever you're about to suggest, just, no.”

A pout met him as he shut down the jump ship, then this Ray's face turned serious. “I was only gonna say that if you're this awful to me, then you must treat your own Ray like crap. And I'm sure he doesn't deserve it. He probably has a lot of respect for you. Maybe even feels more than that.”

Len eyed him coolly, even as his chest tightened involuntarily at the notion. “It doesn't matter what Palmer feels. What he deserves is a dose of reality.”

At that, this Ray looked hurt again, but then he pulled out that little holographic interface. “If I'd had a 'dose of reality', as you call it, I wouldn't have developed this. And I wouldn't have met Lenny at the Pioneers in Industry Dinner. I'm sure your Ray has about ten different projects that would be going nowhere if he was grounded like that, and I'm willing to bet that your paths would never have crossed, either.”

Thinking for a moment about the gravity of what this Ray was saying, his brain betraying him with thoughts he'd never let see the light of day, Len realized he couldn't deny it. There'd be no ATOM suit without that goddamn boundless optimism. And they needed the ATOM, whether he wanted to admit it or not. He couldn't imagine the Boy Scout not being there.

Fuck, this was not the way this day was supposed to go.

Huffing out a breath, he opened the hatch. “Let's go. I just want to get this headache over with.”

~*~*~

“So, your pulse gun still works when it's shrunk?” Len asked, leaning with his palms on the kitchen island of his apartment while Ray's double showed him some of the components of the miniaturized suit. It'd turned out to be one of this Ray's secret projects after all, and Len couldn't help being curious. Something like this could go a long way to helping stop Zoom.

The distraction from his worry over his Ray didn't hurt, either.

“It does,” Ray answered, turning the tiny suit over in his hands. “The effect is diminished, but it's enough to give an opponent a little bee sting if you need to.”

Len nodded, in awe of the things Ray Palmer could do, no matter the world he was from. He hoped they could—

Behind him, the door to the apartment opened, and Len turned to see Ray— _his_ Ray, finally—walking in.

The shock of relief at seeing him at last drew a small cry from Len's throat. “Where were you?” Len demanded halfheartedly. He allowed himself to be swept up in a hug, and felt the tension in his body ease off as he breathed in Ray's scent, _his_ Ray's scent. He was glad he'd had a few minutes to get a shower and change into a fresh button-down and slacks, so Ray wouldn't get a nose-full of smoke and sweat.

“I was in my lab. Captain West called me and told me to stay put while they looked for you,” Ray said, letting him go and adjusting his glasses. “When I talked to her again she said you were brought back here, and the people that took you are all in custody. What happened? Are you okay?”

Len sighed and leaned up to kiss Ray, one hand around the back of his neck. “I am now.” He let him go again and explained, “They were Zoom wannabes. Thought I'd make a nice present for him. But your double here—” he gestured at the other Ray, who gave a small wave and crooked smile, “—came to the rescue. The warehouse went up in flames, and a few of the Zoom kids went down, but I'm okay. Really.”

Ray gave him a soft, warm smile, but then Len glanced over his shoulder and finally noticed someone standing just inside the door. Holy shit, the other Ray wasn't kidding about Len's doppelganger.

This other Leonard Snart looked like he'd seen some terrible shit in his time, wearing the same expression of mild disgust that Len knew all too well from his own early teen years, before they'd gotten rid of his ass of a father. He was dressed in all black and blue, with a pair of dark goggles hanging around his neck and some sort of large weapon strapped to his thigh.

“Wow,” he breathed. “This is bizarre.”

“You're telling me. I'd hoped they were joking,” this other Leonard said in a low, hard voice. “Can't believe anybody would elect _me_ to public office.”

The other Ray came around the kitchen island and stood with Len's double. “It's kind of a lot to take in, I know. I was … caught a little off-guard, myself.” There was that blush again.

The other Leonard glared at him. “Let me guess, you got a face-full of doppelganger, too?”

At that, Len turned to his Ray, and he knew he'd been right to worry. “What did you do?”

“Uh—”

Len's double answered for him, “He practically climbed in my lap. I thought he was gonna try to suck me off right there in the lab. And he's been ridiculously apologetic ever since.”

His Ray laughed nervously, shrugging. “I thought he was you. I was worried sick. I mean, you can't blame me for being glad to see you. But I swear as soon as I figured out he wasn't you, I stopped.”

Len narrowed his eyes. “Mm-hmm,” he said dubiously. But then he shook his head. Doppelgangers aside, he had to get back to Captain West and deal with the fallout of the kidnapping, and they had work to do to get these people home. “Did he tell you they came through a rift?”

His Ray nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yeah. I think I can figure out a way to get them back to their world, if you'd like the help, Doctor Palmer.”

The other Ray beamed. “Absolutely!”

“Back to the lab, then?” his Ray suggested.

“Sure. We can coordinate with the Waverider from there.”

Len wanted to sock them both in the mouth for being so damn adorable. Trading exasperated looks with his own double, he shook his head. At least he and the other Leonard were on the same page.

~*~*~

A few hours later, after Len had given a press conference about the kidnapping, the pair of Rays were still bent over a tabletop screen in the lab at the PalmerTech building, aided by an older gentleman Len had recognized as a double for the Dean of Central City University, who'd gone missing the year before, and a man in a duster who couldn't seem to stop complaining about everything. They were getting nowhere.

Lounging in a few plush chairs in a break area at the opposite end of the lab, Len and his doppelganger watched the group work, splitting a bottle of scotch from Len's private stash and comparing notes about themselves, their lives, and their worlds. They seemed so different from one another, but at last they figured out where they'd gone in different directions. Seemed Lewis Snart was a bastard in all worlds, but was only recently dead in the other Leonard's. Len supposed that'd screw a man over for life, having to deal with such a crap father for so long.

They'd talked about Lisa, his sister a renowned jewelry maker here while the other was a criminal, and Mick, Fire Chief and Len's very good friend here and—no surprise—a criminal there. It had started to look to Len like this other world was a horrible place, where no one had a happy ending, but then his double mentioned Barry Allen, who they determined to be the husband of Captain West here and a hero over there, and Caitlin Snow, his Killer Frost and their S.T.A.R. Labs resident doctor. Even Reverb was a respected scientist over there. So maybe things weren't all bad. Len started to feel a little glimmer of hope—

Until they got to the subject of Raymond. 

That Ray had been declared dead after a lab accident and unexpected shrinking had been a punch to the gut when their Ray had told him about it earlier. That his fianceé, Anna, had been murdered right in front of him was heartbreaking. But the way this other Leonard talked about him … it sounded like he wanted to kill him in his sleep. Ray hadn't been exaggerating. And it was awful.

Len couldn't imagine having such harsh feelings for his Ray.

“You hate his guts, huh?” he ventured cautiously, gauging the other man's reaction and hoping he was wrong.

“So? That a crime now?” There was that low, dark tone again. But then the other Leonard sighed, looking away, and took a swig of his drink. “I don't hate him. Just can't stand his Boy Scout charm and idiotic naivete. He's like a puppy that needs to be neutered, gets us in more trouble than he's worth. I can't even count how many missions we've had to go on just to fix his mistakes.”

Oh, now _that_ sounded familiar, if a lot more aggressive than Len remembered his own feelings from three years ago. He was never so glad to have been wrong. But he couldn't stand seeing his double so torn up about and angry at a man he should obviously be with. “You might as well have just said you want to punch him in his stupid, pretty face,” he offered. “I bet you want to do a lot more than that, too.”

A hard glare met him, and the other Leonard hissed, “What the hell do you know about it?”

“Oh, I know plenty. I know I was a miserable wreck of a man before I met Ray. Still am sometimes, but nothing like before. I'd just been elected—and no, I still can't figure out how I won—and there was Ray, with his dopey grin and boundless optimism, and his plans to modernize everything with holograms and SmartPalms and solar everything. It was infuriating. I wanted to punch him just to shut him up,” Len finished before shrugging. “Instead, I kissed him, and haven't looked back since.”

His double stared at him for a long moment, and Len could see the wheels turning behind his eyes.

“I mean, it's obvious how you really feel. I'd never have talked to my Ray the way you talk to yours, but the sentiment behind all the barbs is pretty clear. And judging by all the blushing he's done today, I'm pretty sure he's right there with you. You might as well sleep with him and get it over with,” Len suggested. “You'll be much happier. Both of you.”

He thought for a moment that his double's head was about to explode, before the man averted his gaze again, taking another drink.

“Or maybe I should let my Ray suck you off like he'd been about to earlier, just so you can get a taste of what you're missing.”

The other Leonard sputtered, choking for a moment at the suggestion, and Len smirked darkly. He had him.

“Asshole,” his double spat at him after he caught his breath.

Len laughed. “Takes one to know one.”

Just then a clamor rose up from the other end of the lab, whooping and high-fiving, and someone shouted, “Bingo!” One of the Rays, clearly.

Both Len and the other Leonard turned to glare at them.

“Tell me you got something,” the other Leonard demanded.

Len's Ray nodded enthusiastically, his hair falling over his glasses. “Yeah. We got it. All we have to do is set the time drive on the ship to the exact frequency of their universe, and rev up the engines, almost to the point of overload, before maxing out the—”

That's where Len tuned out, though, nodding and smiling along at Ray's babble. He only understood about half of what he said most of the time—public service wasn't particle physics, after all—but he loved to hear him go on when he made a breakthrough. And from the sounds of this one, they'd hit pay dirt.

“All right, then,” he said, standing and stashing the scotch. “Let's get these gentlemen back to their own world.”

~*~*~

Back aboard the Waverider, Len thought about what his double had said, about fucking Ray and getting it over with, his mind betraying him again as it turned over the idea. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about it. In the dead of night. In the dark. Where no one would ever know. But that was all in the realm of 'never gonna happen' and 'I'd rather knock his perfect teeth out'. It wasn't even an option. Not as long as they were who they were, as long as Ray was a goddamn sunbeam and he was a felon.

And how the hell did the other Len get to have such a fucking charmed life where he could have whatever—whoever—he wanted anyway? It was hardly fair.

Figuring it'd be best if he just stayed out from underfoot in the control room, he ducked into his quarters before they could get underway. He could ride out the jump by himself, away from Ray and the sad, pathetic looks that he'd started giving Len on their way back to the ship. He didn't need his sympathy or pity or neediness or anything else.

Naturally, as soon as Len was about to strap himself in, the door opened—fuck, he knew better than to leave that unlocked—and Ray strode in, a look of worry on his face.

_His stupid, pretty face._

Dammit. He hated his doppelganger.

“What do you want?” Len snapped. “Shouldn't you be in the control room getting everything ready?”

Ray sighed heavily. “Shouldn't you be up there with us?”

“Don't want to be in the way,” he shot back. “And stop looking at me like that, Boy Scout.”

A frown pulled at Ray's features. “So … I guess I was wrong to send you to find the other Ray, then.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I didn't mean to get you upset. I just—”

“Thought it'd be funny?” Len cut him off.

A blush started to creep up Ray's neck. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I was … well, I was flattered, so I kinda thought you might be, too.”

Sighing, Len rose from his seat and strode across his quarters to face Ray. “Flattering is about the last thing I'd call it,” he said.

Ray's face fell even further at that, and fuck, Len couldn't take it anymore, all the damn ideas that his double had put into his head, seeing Ray look so dejected, knowing that Ray was probably as twisted up inside as he was, and that there could be so much more, that in another world they were fucking happy, and together. It made entirely too much sense now that he was really thinking about it and seeing the possibilities right in front of him.

Reaching up, Len grabbed Ray's head and pulled him down until their lips met in a crashing kiss, hot and deep. When he realized Ray was kissing him back, hands around his waist pulling him closer, Len shivered. Their doubles were right. All the rage and frustration that Len had been holding onto dissipated, and he felt like he could suddenly see things from the other side, the way his counterpart saw them. He might not ever be an upstanding citizen, but he could make this right. He could make his world, _their_ world, right.

_I kissed him, and haven't looked back since._

~*~*~

From the roof of the PalmerTech building, Len and Ray watched the swirling vortex open in the night sky, and the ship that their doubles had arrived on disappear through it. Len grasped Ray's hand tightly, so glad to have met the other versions of themselves, even if those men didn't have what they had. It definitely put things into perspective.

Beside him, Ray turned and gave him a small grin. “I'm gonna build one of those.”

“Oh no. Please don't tell me you—”

“Oh yes. I've _gotta_ have one of those suits,” Ray beamed, his eyes twinkling with mischief behind his glasses. “It _flies,_ Len. I want to fly.”

Len smacked his own forehead, groaning. He supposed things just had to go both ways.

His replacement SmartPalm chimed in his pocket then, and when he pulled it out, the holographic display popped up with a message that had been sent on a time delay:

_Took your advice. If this blows up in my face, it's all your fault. —Cold_

Chuckling to himself, Len stowed his SP and leaned up to kiss Ray. If his double wanted to give him the credit for helping to balance out the two worlds, he'd gladly take it.

~*~*~


End file.
